LOS ANGELES — Gov. Gavin Newsom Feb. 23 announced California’s upcoming launch of a program that will bring Californians together to engage, interact, and share ideas to help shape government services and collectively create policy solutions. Engaged California is a program to support community conversations about important topics using digital platforms. With this new initiative, the state will better ensure decisions are centered on the people’s voices. As part of California’s all-in response to the firestorm, this pilot program is being launched now for survivors and the greater Los Angeles community.
With Engaged California, the state will better empower Californians to have honest, respectful discussions on important topics to help create more responsive and people-driven policies and programs. The program is modeled after successful digital democracy efforts in Taiwan, which used digital tools to help increase consensus-building and build governance powered by the people.
The foundation of the program will encourage participation from Californians across all walks of life to interact with each other to find common ground and help set priorities for state government action. The program will help people to directly voice their concerns and ideas, and improve policymakers’ and administrators’ efforts to listen to Californians outside of election cycles and to be more responsive to their concerns.
“Fire survivors are looking for answers, and California is gearing up to meet them where they are,” said Government Operations Secretary Amy Tong. “We have to think differently to bring us closer to those we serve, especially those whose voices we may be missing through traditional channels.”
Engaged California is different from a poll or town hall, and is not designed to mimic social media. The platform is the intersection between technology, democracy, and state government. The end goal is to encourage more discussions as a new way to find common ground, a process known internationally as deliberative democracy.
The launch of Engaged California will initially focus on the response to the Los Angeles firestorms, bringing together community members to help influence response efforts and better address issues based on community experiences and voices.
The Government Operations Agency, the California Office of Data and Innovation or ODI, in partnership with Carnegie California, the West Coast office and program of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, are leading the development of this program and its supporting deliberative engagement tools. The state is also partnering with the City of Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, and community organizations to help ensure the program is accessible for community members who may be harder to reach. Other program design partners and advisors for this initiative include scholars and leaders from: The American Public Trust, the Berggruen Institute, Stanford University’s Deliberative Democracy Lab, UC Berkeley, Harvard University’s Center for Internet and Society, the San Francisco Foundation, Project Liberty Institute and the Kapor Center. Details:https://engaged.ca.gov
Join at the museum to hear artist Laurie Steelink speak about her practice. Steelink’s artwork A Love Supreme is on view in the museum’s Glenn Court gallery.
A meditation on interpersonal connection and reciprocal support systems, the artist created the work during a period of deep contemplation on the nature of life and love. Steelink’s abstract imagery references scientific and spiritual perspectives, from cellular structures seen under a microscope to altered visions that can arise when using plant medicines.
No RSVP is required.
Multidisciplinary artist Laurie Steelink identifies as Akimel O’otham, and is a member of the Gila River Indian Community. Born in Phoenix, Arizona and raised in Tucson, she received a BFA from the San Francisco Art Institute, and an MFA from Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University. She served as archivist for the Gilbert and Lila Silverman Fluxus Collection in New York, and was director of Track 16 Gallery in west L.A. from 2002 to 2016. In 2012, Steelink founded Cornelius Projects, an exhibition space in San Pedro, CA that she named after her father. The curatorial focus at Cornelius Projects is primarily the cultural history and the artists of San Pedro and the Harbor Area. Steelink’s work has been exhibited internationally, and she has participated in Native American Indian Marketplaces at the Autry Museum of the American West in Los Angeles, and with the Santa Fe Indian Market in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Zero In-Person Voting Diminishes Participation, Interest, Credibility, and Confidence in This Badly Flawed Process
By Nick Antonicello
Could you imagine, as a candidate for office, that you were responsible for signing up and verifying voters, and then compel them to register for a ballot and hope that they vote?
For that is the half-baked logic of LA city officials, specifically DONE, Empower LA and the LA City Clerk’s office by not offering same-day, in-person voting, but rather leaving the qualification process to volunteers to register stakeholders even though that information already sits in the City Clerk’s office in the form of the existing voter roll!
In Los Angeles, it is easier to vote for the U.S. presidency than it is to vote for a community officer on a 21-member local advisory board here in Venice.
The question is obvious.
The question is why?
As of this writing, only 242 individuals have bothered to sign-up here in Venice, and many of those will not cast a ballot. To put this into perspective, the population of Venice is roughly 35,000 people. Is this really a concerted effort to depress stakeholder turnout by the very people whose job it is to offer a valid and credible voting platform?
Neighborhood councils are the closest form of government to the people.
While they are advisory bodies, who advocate for their communities with City Hall on important issues like development, homelessness and emergency preparedness, neighborhood councils are part of the Los Angeles City government, and have annual budgets funded by taxpayer dollars.
Neighborhood council board members are in fact elected city officials who are members of their local communities, but they donate their time as volunteers.
Would it be a municipal budget buster to offer these hard-working advocates a nominal stipend for their time and energy?
The neighborhood council system was established in 1999 as a revision to the Los Angeles City Charter, as a way of ensuring that the LA government remains responsive to the different needs and lifestyles of Los Angeles’ rich variety of communities.
There are currently 99 neighborhood councils in Los Angeles, each serving about 40,000 people per body.
With no same-day voting, it will take weeks to tabulate results and these new members won’t be seated until July leaving a long “lame duck” session for the outgoing members. And why are these elections treated like a second-class democracy?
Why doesn’t the LA City Clerk simply mail every registered voter a ballot, like every other election, and why must one be vetted to vote in these elections, yet homeless individuals are held to a lesser standard?
If one is not a resident of Venice but qualifies as a stakeholder, doesn’t it make much more sense to have those finite number of individuals be vetted versus the entire voter population of 35,000?
Why is this system, bluntly speaking, ass backwards?
It is far more responsible for the city clerk to conduct these neighborhood council elections all on the same day at the same time and use the voter registration system as the primary source of participation. For if thousands of voters participated versus hundreds, these volunteer boards would flex much more influence and power with the 15-member Los Angeles City Council, a detached body of embedded politicos earning some $300,000 annually as the most highly compensated elected body at the municipal level in the United States today.
The level of participation and turnout in Venice will be anemic and embarrassing thanks to those responsible for this colossal error in logic or judgement.
Placing a price on grassroots democracy in the form of a third-rate election process that seems intentionally designed to depress voter expression is in fact democracy denied. For how one can claim to represent Venice or any neighborhood when one could be elected with just dozens of votes because city officials are politically tone-deaf, unable to distinguish the trees from the forest?
Legislative action is required to right this inherent wrong so that the neighborhood council process can truly represent and prosper versus intentionally die on the vine by incompetent municipal bureaucrats nestled like squirrels in City Hall.
Nick Antonicello is a 32-year resident of Venice who exclusively covers the actions and deliberations of the Venice Neighborhood Council. Have a take or a tip on all things Venice? Contact him via e-mail at nantoni@mindspring.com.
In New York City they call themselves ‘Idle Warriors.” Gasoline and diesel trucks that sit still just idling. They don’t move with emissions causing the air quality to be unbreathable. Like we see every day here in Los Angeles. So, let’s talk about these ‘Idle Warriors’ because these people are really doing something positive in New York.
‘Idle Warriors’ go out with their cameras recording Amazon, UPS, FedEx, and other trucks that idle for more than three minutes in any part of the city and more than one minute near schools.
Great idea, right? In New York, it’s the Citizens Air Complaint Program, an anti-idling law created in 1971, but of course, never enforced.
Never enforced.
“So, it’s kinda like when white people do drugs,” joked Desi Lydic on ‘The Daily Show’ during a comedic segment on these “Idle Warriors.”
Yeah, Desi, kinda like that!
Now, New York is enforcing the Citizens Air Complaint Program, 50 years after this law was put into place. And average stakeholders can get compensated for reporting these idling offenders. A cool 25% commission out of the $250 plus fines put on the owners of those idling vehicles. Now, I’m not a math major but on the low end of the $250 fine, which nets out to $62.50 take home.
Not bad, right?
OK let’s do more math. Let’s do 4 of those a day. That banks $250 a day.
I can do that!
As a person who spent way too many years working on commission 25% is a good payout and “Idle Warriors” in New York are making…wait for it…six-figure annual commission payouts on reporting these offenders.
It’s working in New York. Way to go Big Apple.
Fast forward to Los Angeles City Councilmember Tim McOsker.
Tim heard about this program and immediately instructed his team to put together a motion calling for the same Citizens Air Complaint Program concept to be put in play right here in Los Angeles. Now here’s the best part. Us ‘Idle Warriors’ would get a commission on the fines assessed to trucks idling in our city.
YEAH!!!
Now this is the kind of creativity we need from our politicians. Putting the power of enforcement back into the hands of Los Angeles stakeholders. And generate revenue for the City and generate revenue for residents.
That’s a cool side hustle I say!
Obviously, Tim McOsker’s interest is important here as he represents Council District 15 which houses two of the biggest ports in America, the Port of Los Angeles and the Port of Long Beach. Lots of idling going around there.
But then move around the Harbor Gateway South and other areas of the CD15. Look at all of the idling trucks parked in the middle of the street, just sitting still and well, idling. Engines on, putting pollutants in the air, killing us all. Drive around Normandie Avenue and Torrance Boulevard and see for yourself. My neighbors had the same issue on Denker with a new freight company in the hood and idling trucks.
Fortunately, we had great cooperation from DCW on the corner of 205th and Denker. We had a quick conversation with management, and they’ve become fantastic neighbors and managed the idling issue immediately.
Well…OK along with the LAPD chatting with them and the threat by some neighbors to use spike strips for trucks coming down residential streets in and around that location, that kinda helped as well.
I’m being serious now as the air in our communities from idling trucks is killing us. In Tim McOsker’s motion to Council, he writes, “The American Lung Association’s State of the Air 2024 report ranked Los Angeles as the sixth most polluted metropolitan area…idling emissions from motor vehicles, especially those powered by gasoline or diesel, are a known source of these harmful pollutants.”
Only “sixth?” I don’t know but after those wildfires as we used to say in the music business LA might be ‘Number 1” with a bullet.
It’s a mess. Areas near and around the Port of Long Beach have been sadly named “ the “diesel death zone” and “asthma alley.” This is reality. This is a real problem. It’s gotta be resolved and this motion to create this concept of ‘Idle Warriors’ works for me. Let me repeat…this motion would compensate stakeholders in our communities for reporting idling vehicles that are killing us.
Why not stop them before they kill us and make some Moolah at the same time?
Why not?
That is what Tim McOsker’s motion does.
“Implementing a Citizen Idling Complaint Program in Los Angeles could help address the City’s persistent air quality challenges while empowering residents to take an active role in reducing pollution,” he wrote in the Motion to the Energy & Environment and Transportation Committees in Los Angeles City Council.
So, WE now are empowered should the City Council approve this. We can participate in cleaning up the air quality in all of Los Angeles. They did it in New York. We can do it here.
And get compensated for it.
We pay our tax dollars, why not get some of it back?
But now let me mention the bigger issue here. Enforcement. It must be enforced.
And collection of fines must be active as well. In New York a few years back fines were still not collected. Amazon owed $250,000, UPS owed $70,000 and FedEx owed $60,000. The California Franchise Tax Board should be hired to do some collections for New York noting how quickly they drained all my assets a couple of years ago!
Automotive Fleet Magazine calls the ‘Idle Warriors’ vigilantes. No, these people just want to keep their kids alive and able to breathe normally without having to carry an oxygen tank on their shoulders or roll it around behind them when they play Dodgeball at recess.
I started writing this piece over 6 months ago. Still an ongoing, never-ending mess. A mess. Not one person on either side of this issue, after reading this, is gonna like it.
So here we go.
There are no winners here. Only losers.
City of Los Angeles? Loser. More to come on the debacle LA has created with this Public Benefits Project that benefits no one living in the Green Meadows West section of Harbor City.
Those residents, losers too. Losing a ton of value in their homes, losing safety, and losing the look and feel of Green Meadows West.
Stewart Silver, owner of Silver RV Park? He’s losing as well. A lot of sleep, a decline in his personal health and a lot of money.
A lot of money.
Put up $2,000,000 cash into Silver RV Park. He’s going to lose more money but has promised not to go away. Well, unless he’s compensated. Nicely he says.
This is a nasty story. I’ve heard more name-calling so horrific that I can’t post it here. And it’s still going on. I could hold back on telling this story until the end but there doesn’t seem to be an end.
The address is seared in my memory ―― 23416 President Avenue in Harbor City. I’ll try to clarify the fiasco Los Angeles has created with the infamous…at least to the residents of Green Meadows West, Silver RV Park.
I got a call back in June of 2024 from neighborhood activist David Matthews. He asked me to tune into that day’s LA City Council meeting.
I did.
“Item 25” was on the agenda for public comment. Which was the new Silver RV Park. 15th District City Councilmember Tim McOsker made a motion to stop its opening, built smack dab next to an upscale residential area, Green Meadows West in Harbor City. Homes priced at a little over $500,000 to over $1,000,000.
I mean right across the street.
Silver RV Park, according to its owner then, was “97% complete.” That means done. Fully cooked. That was at the end of June 2024.
Stewart Silver bought 23416 President Avenue in Harbor City with all cash in November 2023. The Silver RV Park was taking reservations for summer 2024 occupancy.
Then, SCREECH!!!!!
The motion passed. Everything stopped that day. The residents of Green Meadows West got their wish to basically shut down Silver RV Park.
Yay, right?
Um, no.
Not even close.
“I can’t say much because we are being sued,” said Tim McOsker.
Thanks to a little-known program called the Public Benefits Project. Simply put, a Public Benefit Project for housing can be built with no public input.
One more time, no public input. Stakeholders living in the community, ya ready…you DO NOT have to be notified that such a project is coming into your neighborhood.
The indefinitely shut down Silver RV Park.
“There was no communication about the plans for this RV park,” one Harbor City resident said. “I’ve lived in this neighborhood for 40 years and we are being blindsided.”
No process or system in place forces the developers to make residents aware that such a project is moving next to million-dollar single-family homes. They don’t have to pitch their plans to a Neighborhood Council Plum committee, nobody in the community.
Don’t hate the player, hate the game. Stewart Silver went through the process legally and correctly.
Blame the city.
Roll back to ‘Item 25’ on the Council’s agenda. Tim McOsker was pissed. You could see the frustration on his face. About the RV park but more about getting run over from behind. Nobody knew this Public Benefits Project as in Silver RV Park was happening.
Nothing he could do about it but stop it. And Tim McOsker did. According to Stewart Silver, he considers this an illegal, corrupt move on the city’s part.
Stewart Silver bought 23416 President Avenue in Harbor City using the foundation of the Public Benefits Project and went through every step needed in his 21-page application to get to that 97% completion. And the city has no standing to stop Silver RV Park from opening.
In an August 23rd, 2024 interdepartmental memo the Planning Department and the LA Department of Building and Safety wrote to LA City Council, “The city does not have an ability to impose additional conditions, outside of the Public Benefits provisions for the use of the land associated with the proposed RV park.”
That was six months ago.
Let the nastiness begin.
The site sits empty.
I spent almost an hour speaking with Stewart Silver and spent more than enough time going to public meetings on the issue and speaking with residents living in Green Meadows West. I made it clear to both sides of the issue that I don’t like this RV project pulling up next to million-dollar homes.
It stinks.
But how did this get this far? How does the City of Los Angeles put an RV park in this type of community? I am not playing a culture war card here, but c’mon Los Angeles. You gotta be kidding me with this Public Benefits Project concept because it’s just not fair.
It’s not.
And if Tim McOsker has some power, which he does, this Public Benefits Project thing needs to be reviewed. From my perspective, if people have money, buy million-dollar homes, drive nice cars, and want a safe neighborhood, they should be able to have it for themselves and their families.
Why in the world would they want an RV Park across the street from your home?
I had to ask Tim McOsker about this at a Harbor Gateway South Neighborhood Council meeting. As in, “How do we prevent this from happening in my area?” And I live in what’s considered the hood. It’s gentrifying quite nicely after 8 years as brand-new projects or upgrades are happening.
But not a dang RV park.
That ain’t happening at 206th and Western nor be happening at 235th near Western. And there are no million-dollar homes in my area.
Back to that loser thing at the beginning of this post. The biggest losers will be all residents in Los Angeles. Because Stewart Silver wants his money back. And he’s going to make us pay. An appraiser has valued Silver RV Park between $9,000,000 and $10,000,000 once people are living there.
“I’m not somebody you can push around,” said Silver responding to his treatment by the city. “I will make sure that I will settle for nothing less than what I’m owed.”
Good morning James Preston Allen. I am an RLn subscriber (yes…actual paying subscriber) living in San Pedro and watching in horror as the USA is turned into an oligarchy by Trump and his billionaire buddy Elon Musk. We certainly can’t say we didn’t see this coming, but the speed and chaos surrounding the takeover have been breathtaking. Thank you for covering it in your excellent newspaper.
Here’s my question. What can I do to be a more productive part of the resistance? I’ve already written to our California Senator Adam Schiff and received a heartfelt online form letter in response. I’m looking for something more actionable, and if possible in person. Are there any local San Pedro groups that can direct interested citizens in how they can fight against this tyranny? And have discussions with like-minded people? I find myself between jobs (I’m a market research media and tech worker) so I have plenty of time to participate. Even a Zoom meeting would be great.
I’m tired of doom scrolling through endless posts on social media where there is endless wailing and gnashing of teeth, followed by running down the streets with one’s hair on fire. I actually want to DO something.
Perhaps RLn could have an article in the next issue on how I can help. Wearing my Harris-Walz tee shirt to the local Sprouts recently did feel empowering but the only result was me exchanging strong words with a clueless lady from PV in the chips and crackers aisle.
I really love your newspaper.
Cheers!
Jane K. Collins
San Pedro, CA
Jane, first of all thank you for being a subscriber, second social isolation during this time can not only be disheartening but fatal. So do find community with like minded people.
Here are some people to connect with– San Pedro Neighbors for. Peace and Justicesojournerrb@yahoo.com, Indivisible San Pedro pmwarren@cox.net, do come and speak out at the Central San Pedro Neighborhood Council https://www.centralsanpedro.org/calendar and there’s a weekly Anti-ICE rally at the corner of 13th and Gaffey where you can actually meet some people.
Port Evicts Marine Repair Facility
There is an incredible story unfolding here as the port tries to evict one of the last marine repair and maintenance facilities in the Port of Los Angeles.
I am trapped.
Upon notice of my eviction, five of my clients here abandoned their boats with nowhere to go to receive the necessary repairs and upgrades the boats need in order to get insurance and go to another slip. They are worth less than nothing. They become marine debris.
Three of the boats here are sink risks; the bilge pumps are going all the time and they must be tended constantly.
With no places for boat owners to go to maintain our watercraft, we now are faced with no way to dispose of our watercraft. There are big fines and jail time for scuttling boats offshore, and there are no ship breaking yards closer than San Diego.
I have always been the responsible party here, making sure that these boats don’t sink and become an environmental hazard. I have exhausted all of my personal revenue in efforts doing this. A year and a half ago I had a two year backlog of work, eight people working with me, and a Maritime intern program for the young people to bring them into the Maritime professions.
Now, I am alone trying to clean up the mess, while the port threatens to lock me out, seize all of my business assets and destroy them.
They are willing to spend money to do this, but they are not willing to spend money to support our Maritime businesses that provide the services that the community needs.
The commercial real estate division of the port is out of control.
My wife works in an office building at 2500 via Cabrillo Way. It is on a port lease that is running out. Commercial real estate has neglected to renew their lease. They can’t borrow the money they need to do upgrades and maintenance to the building. They cannot sell the building without the lease renewal.
My friends at the 22nd St., Landing in San Pedro informed me that this is the same situation with them. The Port has doubled their minimum rent and has neglected to renegotiate a new lease. They are paralyzed..
Michael Galvin is not doing his job and is insistent on turning the port of Los Angeles into a wasteland of failed businesses and abandoned properties.
The commercial real estate division of the port has no regard for small business, the San Pedro community, The Wilmington community, the Maritime community or the environment.
Illegal Fireworks Turn LA Neighborhoods Into War Zones—At a Devastating Cost
The Los Angeles County (LAC) New Year’s Eve and 4th of July neighborhood fireworks have created a domestic war zone. And setting them off could literally cost you body parts and/or substantial $ fines.
Several cities are even more guilty of the fireworks travesty as they openly sell these weapons of dismemberment and death. This needs to stop.!
It is truly incredibly selfish of those who set off fireworks knowing the devastating effect it has on animals, veterans, and other vulnerable beings. The fire danger to homes is always present as we have witnessed in the recent fires. And, as of late, thousands of homes, businesses, and people’s lives have been literally burned from the face of this planet. 30 are still missing. The LAC 2025 wildfire damage has topped $250 billion; forecasters say the two largest of the fires — Palisades and Eaton — have destroyed more than 18,000 structures. Numerous arrests have been made for looting.
Seldom mentioned is the monopolizing of 911 services, rendering them unavailable for more serious and life-threatening needs. Shame on parents who break the law and set an example that it is acceptable.
Criminalizing this travesty is worthless unless we back it up. A special LB Police Department, LAC Sheriff, and/or National Guard task force should be dispatched for at least a week before and after New Year’s Eve and July 4th. It would be a responsible expenditure truly serving the vast majority of law-abiding citizens.
The whole state of California needs to declare all fireworks illegal with attached substantial jail time (including murder charges for any resulting deaths) and fines. And, the $$ fines should serve to fund this humanitarian endeavor.
Diana Lejins
Long Beach
Unsatisfactory Content
I’m sorry to say I found some content in your Jan. 23-Feb. 5 2025 issue to be unsatisfactory, including Paul Rosenberg’s well-meaning “LA Burned” story. Climate change, caused by human activity that leads to increased fire danger, is obviously a subject worth pursuing, but making that subject the lead, and devoting more than thirty column inches to it, diminishes local aspects of the disaster. Only around the twenty-third graph did the author address the political and community response to the fires. One was the inadequate water supply. The other subject given inadequate space was the political opportunism exhibited by certain media mouth pieces using the disaster as an excuse to bash the Democratic mayor and the Democratic governor and every other Democrat around, instead of finding common ground to address the shortcomings (such as the environment, the disaster response, and the water supply) that the disaster exposed.
I also found your Random Letters section to have shortcomings. Your former editor Erik Kongshaug is a fine writer but what point his letter was making was obscure. It had something to do with another paper, AI and the meaning of “OP/ED” but I had trouble understanding what he was getting at. Also, printing the misinformation and disinformation in Jake Pickering’s letter without comment or context was irresponsible. To promote “Trump’s faked assassination attempt” and misrepresent Christopher Wray’s testimony about the (actual) attempt isn’t even a “conspiracy theory.” It’s more like a “fever dream.” Some context was needed and none was given.
Thanks for your attention to this matter, and you may publish this letter if you wish.
It’s Black History Month but the current regime is trying to wipe it away. It began as a way of remembering important people and events in the history of the African diaspora, with an emphasis placed on encouraging the coordinated teaching of the history of Black Americans in the nation’s public schools. Since its inception, the Black community met the creation of Black History Month with enthusiastic response.
Angels Gate Cultural Center selected the proposal for Black In Place two to three years ago. Curator Naomi Stewart told Random Lengths News that it’s so interesting how relevant it continues to be no matter when the exhibition is shown. At that time, when she was just processing the murder of George Floyd and talking with artists, conversations and her own curiosity led her to the ideas presented in Black In Place.
“Now and even in this most visceral, interface way of stripping down DEI, stripping down Critical Race Theory being taught, ripping down black history, it’s ridiculous. We need to keep doing this,” said Stewart during a walk-through of this group exhibition.
Countering erasure, Black In Place interrogates the living contradictions of existing while Black, invoking ancestral and indigenous wisdom to explore how Black artists cultivate dreaming through making.
The exhibition includes artists Leslie Dubois-Adkins,Adeola Davies-Aiyeloja, Denise ‘deLaSNP’ Coke, Dea Jenkins, Steven A. Johnson II, Denese King-Ashley, Kandy G. Lopez, Rosalyn Myles, Cheyann Washington and Fallon Williams. Through audio, portraiture, painting, digital/augmented reality, fiber art, poetry, drawing and installation, the artworks engage hidden narratives, ancestral wisdom and unbridled expression to both sow and assert Black existence.
In her curatorial statement, Stewart presents three guiding questions by which viewers can engage with the artworks. She has strategically placed works in the gallery to reflect the evolutionary themes discussed below.
How does the act of archiving unveil hidden narratives to sow existence?
How can indigenous and ancestralwisdom enrich and guide the Black sojourner?
How can Black people live out their fullest expression through making and dreaming?
Living Contradiction
From these questions, Stewart explores the erasure the Black diaspora has survived and calls on what esteemed African-American collectors Bernard and Shirley Kinsey refer to as the “myth of absence.” Stewart posits these artworks dispel the notion that what is unseen does not exist. The paradox of existing while being rendered invisible is an ongoing reality for the Black Diaspora, particularly in the West.
These works address the questions above serving as topical examples of Black individuals’ existence, enrichment, guidance and living outtheir fullest expression.
Stewart also draws from 18th-century enslaved African poet Phyllis Wheatley. Her poem On Being Black Brought from Africa to America (1773) encapsulates the erasure of Black people during enslavement, leading to a subconscious “doublemindedness.” (The title of Wheatley’s poem is On Being Brought from Africa to America.)
‘Los Dos Kandys,’ yarn and paint on hook. By Kandy G. Lopez Photo courtesy of Angels Gate Cultural Center
Double-mindedness: the split between one’s public performance to accommodate whiteness and the internal self, creating a sense of disconnection and otherness that resonates for many marginalized groups today.
Los Dos Kandys, yarn and paint on hook mesh by Kandy G. Lopez addresses the internal and external negotiations of cultural duality. The mixed media piece draws from Frida Kahlo’s Las Dos Fridas (1939). A first-generation Afro-Caribbean American, Lopez explores the paradox of visibility and invisibility navigating the tension between her intersecting identities and reflecting on how Black individuals assert presence in spaces where they have often been erased.
From a distance, the meticulous piece appears to be a painting, until you approach it, when it reveals flesh-colored yarn for the artist’s skin and other colors of clothing for two Kandys, who sit holding hands, just as in Las Dos Fridas. The left Kandy wears an embroidered, traditional Mexican folk dress with a red, white and blue ruffle, from which the yarn trails downward beyond the piece’s mesh border. Kandy on the right wears a tank top and torn jeans. Las Dos Kandys unfinished hair accentuates the cultural significance of hair within Afro-Caribbean and American identities, signaling an ongoing journey of self-discovery. A necklace with a cowrie shell, (repeated throughout the exhibition) tied to the transatlantic slave trade, symbolizes resilience and ancestral connection, underscoring Lopez’s broader themes of survival and cultural pride.
“This piece is kismet because it really ties well into another element of this statement which is about living contradictions, double-mindedness and grappling with identities that might be conflicting,” Stewart said. “How do we hold space for both or multiples? How do we perform if we need to?”
Steven Anthony Johnson II interrogates the theme of double-mindedness in Dear Beautiful Black Baby (2020-present), graphite on paper, audio, album with photos and transcripts. Johnson uses intimate portraits and interviews to explore the complexities of Black familial relationships.
Rosalyn Myles transforms personal history into poetic form in her installation Daisy Lee Hightower (2022), a tribute to her grandmother. Using a dining table and architectural elements, Myles creates a sculptural timeline that reflects her grandmother’s life across different eras.
Encompassing double-mindedness,Stewart submits, the three artists confront the complexities of Black life, exploring the push-and-pull of self-actualization and performance, and how these can contradict one another within a society that often demands conformity.
Power of Enunciation
With an understanding of the Black experience as a living contradiction, Stewart said reclamation and memory become powerful conduits to cement our existence. She noted, Myles and Johnson’s archival installations are transitory pieces to this subject.
The dissolution of “otherness” begins with the reclamation of culture. Dea Jenkins’ Recollective Memory, 2023 Cotton, Khadi Movement cotton, raw slub cotton, unprocessed linen, acrylic on canvas, responds to otherness through the representation of knowledge.
‘Recollective Memory,’ 2023 Cotton, Khadi Movement cotton, raw slub cotton, unprocessed linen, acrylic on canvas. By Dea Jenkins. Photo courtesy of Angels Gate Cultural Center
Jenkins’ statement describes memories as often emerging in cloudy fragments, billowing to the surface when triggered. “Their mirages are like inked stains, fading over time. The gaps in memory tease at disjointed timelines coercing the collector to stretch and tie together loose ends.”
Recollective Memory’s linen base with its watery substances and fluid shapes imitates “the tenuousness of formed histories and the unreliability of performed memory.” Honeyed tones of gold, tea and light brown spread throughout the base as black lines dart over and across the earthen hues. Jenkins offers that the organized woven threads (which culminate to a point) juxtapose the unstructured paint, highlighting Black culture’s propensity to generate creativity despite a lack of supportive structures. The woven piece hangs simply on top of the painted background, indicating that it could exist on its own. However, without the context of the abstract painting, the artist asserts, the weaving would lose its broader meaning.
‘Echoes of Elders,’ mixed acrylics with inks, mediums, collage, aquarelle by Adeola Davies-Aiyeloja. Photo courtesy of Angels Gate Cultural Center
Echoes of Elders, mixed acrylics with inks, mediums, collage, aquarelle. The piece, depicting a mask draws on Adeola Davies-Aiyeloja’s recent journey to the Cape Coast and Elmina Castles in Ghana, where the ancestral spirits of the transatlantic slave trade left an lasting impact on the artist. The castle dungeon walls evoked traces of those who endured unimaginable suffering. Inspired by these sites, Davies-Aiyeloja channels the resilience, anguish, and strength of her ancestors, using her art to give voice to silenced stories.
Through a palette reflecting the castle’s stone and the surrounding rock, this work calls on viewers to confront the enduring legacies of systemic inequality.
Accompanied by jewelry maker Davies-Aiyeloja’s beautiful Orisa Ibile God-like sculptures, with hand-fabricated enamel mask on copper, cowrie shells, raffia, beads, mixed metals, brass, tin, copper and bronze, the piece serves as a potent reminder to honor the past and protect the future.
Dreaming while Black, making while Black
To dream and make while Black, Stewart wrote, is an act of resistance and reclamation, pushing back against oppression by bringing the Black imagination into the forefront.
In Bodega (Just Another Day) (2022) digital on canvas with augmented reality capabilities, Denise ‘deLaSNP’ Coke evokes the nostalgia of a New York summer day, blending memories of her hometown with a sense of loss. In the piece, a young, Black woman strolls down the street with shopping bags. Vibrant colors, augmented reality, animation, and sounds create an atmosphere that celebrates joy amid a changing landscape. The ‘Bod aye ga’ window captures the voice and creativity of the community with strategically placed signs weaving together multiple narratives; Coke’s Afro-Caribbean heritage (“Culture, Respect, Family”), and community activism (“Save the Block,” “ REINVEST”) The peaceful and immaculate scene radiates optimism.
‘Bodega (Just Another Day)’ (2022) digital on canvas with augmented reality capabilities, by Denise ‘deLaSNP’ Coke. Photo courtesy of Angels Gate Cultural Center
Denise ‘deLaSNP’ Coke’s Where We Stand (2022) digital on canvas with augmented reality capabilities, embodies the strength of Black Womanhood and divine femininity. The work portrays a woman, in a gesture of welcome, regal and dressed elegantly in warm colors. The augmented reality highlights sculptural elements of the scene’s staircase and different vantage points within the piece. Stewart noted that Coke invites viewers into a world of confident self-expression and cultural pride. It is an affirmation of the right to dream freely while releasing societal burdens.
Leslie Dubois-Adkins explores themes of mythology, nostalgia, and collective consciousness in her paintings. Lilith and her Bird (2024) acrylic on canvas, reimagines the story of Lilith, who left the Garden of Eden in pursuit of freedom. Paired with an owl symbolizing wisdom, the painting reflects independence and empowerment. This is a striking piece, wherein Lilith and her feathered companion in deep coloration and majestic stature exude quiet confidence. Stewart said Adkins, who is based in Topanga, connects her work, the background, even the animals that she chooses to wildlife and Topanga. An audio element also captures sounds of the owl. Stewart wanted to include this piece with particular placement. Lilith, in profile view, is placed directly across the gallery from Coke’s Where We Stand.
‘Lilith and her Bird’ (2024) acrylic on canvas, by Leslie Dubois-Adkins. Photo courtesy of Angels Gate Cultural Center
“Both are connected to this idea of divine feminine, female empowerment, and taking ownership of our own journeys as black individuals,” said Stewart. “Having them in the position that they’re in, part of what they represent, leading us into what I would call [a] more … direct and confrontational discussion surrounding the black experience with the artists in the back (of the gallery) having them here was on purpose.”
Stewart noted, her curatorial statement references poet Phillis Wheatley, one of the first enslaved African poets. “The facade of Lilith’s portrait is connected to how black creators at that time were captured and even prominent, white writers would be captured [in] profile,” Stewart said. “So if you look up Phillis Wheatley and [her] portrait, … I was feeling connected because of that and her poetry was speaking to me as I was putting this show together.
“The subject matter of Lilith and her Bird connects to desire or ancestral indication. Where Adeola Davies-Aiyelo or her Orisa Ibile works of enamel masks are direct calls on the ancestors for covering and guidance, Lilith and its placement leading us out of the gallery, calls on an elder from the perspective of a younger version of them.”
An extensive, rich and profound exhibition, Black In Place, a treatise, holds space for invocation, re-memory, and unbridled Black expression.
Black in Place will be on view through March 29 with free public visiting hours Thursday to Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
This February, join aboard the Queen Mary to bring the vibrant African American culture to life in celebration of Black History Month. The Arts Council for Long Beach will showcase the rich history, art, and spirit of Leimert Park, a historic hub for African American culture in Los Angeles. Experience a dynamic collection of local art, music, and performances that honor the legacy of this iconic community. From visual arts to spoken word, this unique event offers a chance to immerse yourself in the creativity and resilience that define Black culture. Don’t miss this opportunity to celebrate Black History Month in a truly special way.
The Fires in LA, Health Agencies Slashed, FBI and FAA Gutted — Shocked by the Headlines
In a city like Los Angeles that is usually so self-absorbed in its own reflection in the celebrity culture of fashion, sports and cinema, it was astounding to see the selfless outpouring of support for the refugees of the Palisades and Eaton fires.
From all over Southern California came truckloads of goods and volunteers to help the devastated victims of fires and then floods —mostly from just common working folks. Simultaneously, there was a deluge of executive orders from the Oval Office. We were warned about both the force of the winds and the words from the Convicted Orange Blowhard in Chief. It shouldn’t have come as a surprise for either disaster. The 2025 plan was leaked over a year ago and studied by every state attorneys general and many others.
The National Weather Service warned us about the hurricane-force winds but doesn’t have a prediction model for an autocratic coup. Nature can be unpredictable, but not so Don the con, who has been espousing all of the “deep state” anti-woke and DEI lingo that he can dish out, with all the anti-immigrant fervor he can muster. Sure, the problem is that foreigners have been “invading” this continent since Christopher Columbus landed — most of them got here without papers.
On the ecological side of the disaster headlines, we were warned years in advance by the likes of Mike Davis, author of the Ecology of Fear — Los Angeles and the Imagination of Disaster. When that book and others by him were written in the 1990s, some called him a doomsayer. Today he’s a visionary who saw the future before it arrived. However, it doesn’t take a prophet to predict what the future holds for the 2.0 version of the Orange Tyrant. The dismantling and defunding of the various health and aid agencies will surely bring on the next pandemic that could have been stopped. The defunding and firing of Justice Department and FBI agents will only make our nation less safe from criminals and corruption — for the real criminals are now in charge!
As the lawsuits mount up against the executive orders – 46 at last count and mounting daily — the Constitutional crisis looms on the horizon and like the response to the fires, people are starting to show up. First on street corners, then in state capitals and then in DC with a “He’s not our President” day of protests. And nary a discouraging word from a cowed national media, who are now afraid of a billion-dollar lawsuit.
As California and the rest of the nation watches for the ICE sweeps coming to town, I have received reports from nurses that they have already raided Kaiser Permanente in Harbor City and will be targeting other local hospitals in this region. This only spreads a layer of panic and fear amongst the Latino and immigrant communities for anyone might get swept up and deported if they aren’t carrying their papers and even if they were born here. Don’t leave home without your passport.
Down at the local U.S. Post Office, the clerk who processes the passport application says that there has been a 100% increase since Jan. 20 for people getting their children registered – and in San Pedro, there are just as many Croatians and Italians as Latinos applying. People want to make sure that if they leave the country their children can actually return!
The Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles was not shy about promoting Republican anti-abortion candidates before the November election, but now they too are shocked at the inhumanity of the new regime in the Capitol.
Archbishop José H. Gomez wrote recently:
“Our national debate about immigration frustrates me. … Many of our leaders seriously believe the issue can best be ‘solved’ by rounding up and removing everyone caught living in our midst without proper legal documents. This would be a human rights nightmare, involving the forced repatriation of a population roughly the size of Ohio. … Politicians talk in euphemisms about … making life so scary and harsh for people who are here illegally that they will want to leave the country of their own accord. From the courts and legislatures to the media and popular opinion, there is an outraged, personal tone to our immigration debate that you don’t hear very often in our politics.”
I am certain that many more religious leaders of many faiths might put it in more blunt terms– except for the white evangelical nationalists who believe that America was founded by Christians, for Christians only and everyone else is corrupting the nation. This of course is pure hogwash. The Founding Fathers may have been deists and a few atheists but not one thought that a theocratic state was sustainable or desirable. This is why the division of church and state was built into the Constitution — you can’t have a United States of America that is divided by religion, caste, or creed.
Even more so after the American Civil War and the passage of the 14th Amendment, all people born here have birth-right citizenship. That issue has withstood challenges many times and is still the law of the land today. But the far-right xenophobes would like to take that case all the way to the Supreme Court to have it overturned like Roe vs. Wade.
What we are seeing today in reaction to the fires and the coup is that at our core the average citizen of our country still believes in E Pluribus Unum the Latin phrase that means “out of many, one.” It is the official motto of the United States on the Great Seal of the United States. It is embodied in the concept of our Statue of Liberty and the poem by Emma Lazarus, at its base:
Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!
America is now divided again about who has rights and who doesn’t, but at some point in the very near future you’ll have to decide if we in fact are still one nation of many and if freedom and liberty can survive the tyrant in the White House that the founding fathers warned us about.
Some might think San Pedro’s claim to Brenton Wood is tenuous at best. But I’d argue that the Los Angeles Harbor culture has the bigger claim to stake.
Oogum Boogum and “Gimme Little Sign were Wood’s break-out hits from the start and remained a staple in Angeleno households for generations since.
“The tunes like that just feel good, Oogum Boogum’ and Gimme Little Sign are two good-spirited songs,” Wood said. “It is songs like that that get you into a happier mood. It still does it to me!” he said.
He charted again with two more songs ― Baby, you Got It in 1967, and in 1977 he had a hit with Shirley Knight called Come Softly to Me. The aforementioned songs are not only considered classic oldies, but have been background music in every low rider that has cruised San Pedro. In 2001, he produced an album called, This Love is for Real. He has two compilation albums, which include Brenton Wood’s 18 Best, produced in 1991, and in 1999 he came out with 18 More of the Best.
His songs are featured on an innumerable amount of oldies compilations popular in the Chicano community.
Brenton Wood. Photo by Terrelle Jerricks
In 2008, Random Lengths News asked why the soul music of the 1960s is so much a part of low-rider culture. Wood replied, “It went back to the ’40s and ’50s … it all started back there. Many of those groups were Latin doo-wop groups, made up of different people from the neighborhood. That is what they would do instead of killing each other like today. Back in the day, you did not hear of the violence. Today, it is like a Wild West movie.”
We went back to the music question, and he added, “You know about all the car clubs, the Latin community is very big on heritage and my music relates to that era. Everybody lived in the same neighborhood so they were emulating one another, even on the East Coast. There were a lot of mixed groups; the Latin people had a lot of influence on R&B music.” He noted, “Today they support it totally.”
He has been performing in venues large and small ever since, and is promoting oldies shows around the country. Last year he performed here in San Pedro in his “Coming Home Concert,” at Levels, formerly known as La Conga.
Born Alfred Jesse Smith in Shreveport, Louisiana, Brenton Wood moved west to San Pedro, California, as a child. His father, a longshore worker, and mother who worked at Starkist cannery, made a home for Wood and his siblings at Banning Homes in the 1940s.
Woods said he learned to play the piano from watching a neighbor play at 7 years old.
“There was this man whose name escapes me, he played piano; I watched him and I began to copy him,” Wood seated. “Later when my family moved to Compton, there was a family that had a piano. I would go over and copy what I heard that was on the radio and play for the girls,” he added with a chuckle.
During this time, Wood joined the Compton High School track team and received several awards for his athletic achievements.
Inspired by the late Sam Cooke and Jesse “Mr. Easy” Belvin (co-writer of such ’50s mega-hits as Earth Angel and Good Night My Love ) Wood started to develop his unique singing style.
In 1967, while spending long tedious hours making bomb casing at the Martin Marietta Corporation plant, Wood struck gold.
He told Random Lengths News, “I wrote The Oogum Boogum Song in two and half hours while I was at work.” This song would become one of his big hits and would take young Wood from the factory floor to the stages of the world. “It was great in the beginning, but after a while, the touring was not as much fun.” He went on to make his biggest smash recording with Gimme Little Sign in September of 1967, charting at number 9 on Billboard magazine’s Top 100.
In the 1980s, Wood staged a show at the Dancing Waters.
“I put on a show down here, they had so many people, they were coming out the windows!” he said with a hardy laugh.
Wood spent his remaining years playing around California and in schools, encouraging young people to stay in school and work toward their dreams of becoming successful individuals. According to one of his surviving daughters, Marilyn Smith, Brenton loved his fans so much that he made himself available even as his health declined.
Brenton Wood performs at Peck Park in 2008. Photo by Terrelle Jerricks
In her homage to her father, Smith reported that Wood was in a wheelchair with an oxygen tank in his final stage appearance in February 2024 in Long Beach. Smith said he went because he did not want to disappoint his fans by not showing up. That was the kind of person he was, right until the end.
